Kirby's Study Journal
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Another video I translated: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=30Q0hcKIHPI
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
So I'm leaving for the first Midwest Open (gohio.org) tomorrow. I had intended to study more, but I did some work on translations some evenings. I can still say that I studied a little bit more than usual.
Since I'm done with translations, I can do more study tonight, too.
In the meantime, I played this quick game on fox during lunch:
I think I felt good about stuff that I shouldn't have felt good about. I got thick shapes, but white got a lot of points. As can be seen in the sgf, I think at a point white can just live and have more points - then it'll be my job to make a comeback.
But white got a little greedy, and I killed white.
Since I'm done with translations, I can do more study tonight, too.
In the meantime, I played this quick game on fox during lunch:
I think I felt good about stuff that I shouldn't have felt good about. I got thick shapes, but white got a lot of points. As can be seen in the sgf, I think at a point white can just live and have more points - then it'll be my job to make a comeback.
But white got a little greedy, and I killed white.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Highlights!
Position 1 Above, I think it's proper to connect: But given my stones on the right, I wanted to enclose: I can understand my feeling, but maybe I should have read a bit more carefully before playing in this aggressive way.
Position 2
It felt nice to capture these stones. But maybe my intuition is off... White has more points than I'd like, given my thickness. So I think white is not as bad as I initially thought here.
Position 3
Here: I think white's move is too greedy. If white simply lives cleanly: As I estimated in the SGF, I think white is leading. So I think I'd prefer white here.
---
So where did things go wrong? I'm thinking that I was too aggressive on the bottom, and too happy to get the thickness of capturing too stones. White got a lot of territory.
Takeaway?
1. Consider strong points of opponent's position
2. Territory can compensate for thickness if it's sufficiently large.
I think I need to value territory more, perhaps.
Position 1 Above, I think it's proper to connect: But given my stones on the right, I wanted to enclose: I can understand my feeling, but maybe I should have read a bit more carefully before playing in this aggressive way.
Position 2
It felt nice to capture these stones. But maybe my intuition is off... White has more points than I'd like, given my thickness. So I think white is not as bad as I initially thought here.
Position 3
Here: I think white's move is too greedy. If white simply lives cleanly: As I estimated in the SGF, I think white is leading. So I think I'd prefer white here.
---
So where did things go wrong? I'm thinking that I was too aggressive on the bottom, and too happy to get the thickness of capturing too stones. White got a lot of territory.
Takeaway?
1. Consider strong points of opponent's position
2. Territory can compensate for thickness if it's sufficiently large.
I think I need to value territory more, perhaps.
be immersed
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Well, tomorrow is the tournament. I’ll be driving there this evening, and plan to play several games this weekend.
Because of that, today I’m going to skip my lunchtime game and do some problems instead. Today’s set will be from a set of books I bought in Korea, roughly translated as “The Top 1%”.
I think the problems are too easy to have that title, but meh, I guess that’s marketing.
Because of that, today I’m going to skip my lunchtime game and do some problems instead. Today’s set will be from a set of books I bought in Korea, roughly translated as “The Top 1%”.
I think the problems are too easy to have that title, but meh, I guess that’s marketing.
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Bill Spight
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Good luck!Kirby wrote:Well, tomorrow is the tournament. I’ll be driving there this evening, and plan to play several games this weekend.
Or maybe you are better than you think you are.Because of that, today I’m going to skip my lunchtime game and do some problems instead. Today’s set will be from a set of books I bought in Korea, roughly translated as “The Top 1%”.
I think the problems are too easy to have that title, but meh, I guess that’s marketing.
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins
Visualize whirled peas.
Everything with love. Stay safe.
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins
Visualize whirled peas.
Everything with love. Stay safe.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Thanks - I’ll do my best.
About the problems, what I mean is that I have a lot of problem books, and these are definitely not among the hardest.
I guess hard problems may not be everything though.
About the problems, what I mean is that I have a lot of problem books, and these are definitely not among the hardest.
I guess hard problems may not be everything though.
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Bill Spight
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
I read a book by a poker player who was also a bridge expert. Before going out to play poker he would work two bridge problems. If he didn't get both of them right, he wouldn't play poker that day.Kirby wrote:Thanks - I’ll do my best.
About the problems, what I mean is that I have a lot of problem books, and these are definitely not among the hardest.
I guess hard problems may not be everything though.
The Adkins Principle:
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins
Visualize whirled peas.
Everything with love. Stay safe.
At some point, doesn't thinking have to go on?
— Winona Adkins
Visualize whirled peas.
Everything with love. Stay safe.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
It's a little off topic, but back when I lived in Japan, I had a lot of scholarship money. And of course, the best use of that money was to buy manga and video games.Bill Spight wrote:I read a book by a poker player who was also a bridge expert. Before going out to play poker he would work two bridge problems. If he didn't get both of them right, he wouldn't play poker that day.Kirby wrote:Thanks - I’ll do my best.
About the problems, what I mean is that I have a lot of problem books, and these are definitely not among the hardest.
I guess hard problems may not be everything though.
One of the games I bought was this one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Age ... utes_a_Day!
It's a mildly amusing game, which has various exercises to try to keep your mind sharp (simple timed arithmetic problems, etc.).
One of the daily games was one for practicing short term memory. It'd present increasing quantities of numbers, and for a given set, you'd have to remember what those numbers were after about a second, and then indicate the relative ordering of those numbers, as they had appeared on the screen.
It wasn't a scientific study or anything, but I found that when I performed well on this short term memory game, I'd often feel sharp when playing go. But if it was a day where my short term memory performance was bad, I'd have a rough time reading.
I didn't feel the same correlation for the other types of problems (arithmetic, etc.).
I haven't played this game in awhile, but I wonder if my feeling would still hold. I suppose I could use that to decide whether to play in a tournament: if my short term memory is sharp, then my go might be, too...(?)
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Hmm, I don’t recall. It just seemed that on some days, I could get a lot further than on others.jlt wrote:Did you find out why on certain days your short term memory was bad? Lack of sleep / being tired / being hungry / having other thoughts in mind / other?
That being said, this was back in 2005, and my long term memory is also faulty. I still have the game - maybe I should make a more reproducible experiment.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
I’m bored in my hotel room, so I’ll document my experience at the first annual Midwest Open (spoiler alert: I’m having a good time!)
I’ll start by saying that it’s very convenient to have a cool tournament like this so close to home. My venture started on Friday evening after seeing my kids off to bed. Since the tournament is only 2.5 hours from my home, I could enjoy a relaxing dinner with my family before heading out.
The drive went smoothly. I half listened to some go lectures in my car, and tried to stay alert. The roads were nice until just before I arrived at my hotel. I got in around 10pm to the quaint hotel I had booked. The hotel is about 1 mile from the playing venue - walkable. They offer free breakfast and parking, but I was disappointed to find that there was no gym. Oh well.
I unpacked my things, settled into my room, texted my wife, and went to bed.
After waking up, I freshened up and went to the hotel breakfast area. I quickly recognized some go players, including Eric Yoder, an AGA 6d. He’s been part of Inseong’s program, and is an all around nice guy.
I chat with folks a bit, then headed to the playing area. There was an icy rain, so I drove instead of walking.
I arrived at the venue, and checked out the facilities. Overall, quite nice.
Here’s a picture of the main playing area:
And then the review area, mostly for Kim Yoonyoung 8p to review games:
The next thing of notice were the personalized name tags. It was a nice touch:
And oddly, I was given some sort of bag (more on that later):
—-
So that was all cool. What to do next? Well, registration was still going on, so I did my best to chat with folks, and meet new people. So I made rounds visiting various cliques, introduced myself, and chat.
Around 9am, there was an opening ceremony. Devin, the organizer, gave a short speech, and this guy played several musical instruments to get things rolling:
His performance was unique, but I enjoyed it. He did some music with guitar and harmonica as well, along with another piece with a different instrument I don’t recall the name of. I have some videos of the performance if you’re interested.
—-
Anyway, after this, Devin explained some unique aspects of this tournament:
1.) Except for the first pairing, the main section (not masters) is self paired with computer assistance. It means that when you’re done playing, you can utilize their software to find another player to play.
2.) There’s a reason for the bags. Namely, in the evening, there are activities like go trivia, puzzles, and mini games. Doing well on those activities earns you coin tokens. Furthermore, whenever you win a tournament game, you get coin tokens. You can use coin tokens to buy handicap stones in simultaneous games against Kim Yoonyoung 8p. And if you win, you earn - you guessed it - coin tokens.
So what’s the deal with these coin tokens? Well, if your (self-chosen) team has the most coin tokens at the end of the tournament, you win one of these Felix swords:
And of course, there are other prizes and trophies, too, for doing well in your division (there are state championship trophies, too - but not for Michigan, so I cannot win one):
So that was all cool. After some more logistics, the tournament began. Here’s a picture of my first opponent (I asked if he was ok with the picture):
I’ll continue with the game in the next post.
I’ll start by saying that it’s very convenient to have a cool tournament like this so close to home. My venture started on Friday evening after seeing my kids off to bed. Since the tournament is only 2.5 hours from my home, I could enjoy a relaxing dinner with my family before heading out.
The drive went smoothly. I half listened to some go lectures in my car, and tried to stay alert. The roads were nice until just before I arrived at my hotel. I got in around 10pm to the quaint hotel I had booked. The hotel is about 1 mile from the playing venue - walkable. They offer free breakfast and parking, but I was disappointed to find that there was no gym. Oh well.
I unpacked my things, settled into my room, texted my wife, and went to bed.
After waking up, I freshened up and went to the hotel breakfast area. I quickly recognized some go players, including Eric Yoder, an AGA 6d. He’s been part of Inseong’s program, and is an all around nice guy.
I chat with folks a bit, then headed to the playing area. There was an icy rain, so I drove instead of walking.
I arrived at the venue, and checked out the facilities. Overall, quite nice.
Here’s a picture of the main playing area:
So that was all cool. What to do next? Well, registration was still going on, so I did my best to chat with folks, and meet new people. So I made rounds visiting various cliques, introduced myself, and chat.
Around 9am, there was an opening ceremony. Devin, the organizer, gave a short speech, and this guy played several musical instruments to get things rolling:
—-
Anyway, after this, Devin explained some unique aspects of this tournament:
1.) Except for the first pairing, the main section (not masters) is self paired with computer assistance. It means that when you’re done playing, you can utilize their software to find another player to play.
2.) There’s a reason for the bags. Namely, in the evening, there are activities like go trivia, puzzles, and mini games. Doing well on those activities earns you coin tokens. Furthermore, whenever you win a tournament game, you get coin tokens. You can use coin tokens to buy handicap stones in simultaneous games against Kim Yoonyoung 8p. And if you win, you earn - you guessed it - coin tokens.
So what’s the deal with these coin tokens? Well, if your (self-chosen) team has the most coin tokens at the end of the tournament, you win one of these Felix swords:
be immersed
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Prior to my first game, I felt some confidence. I’ve studied some, and I felt I could do well. I think I’m stronger than AGA 2d, so I felt like I could win. Furthermore, Kim Yoonyoung chat with me in Korean a bit shortly before the game. She kind of teased me, asking why I was still 2d. I didn’t have much to say.
So I felt good going into this game. I was white:
It’s a partial game record because I was interrupted for lunch while recalling it. The main line isn’t what I played - I died on the right. Needless to say, I lost.
The opening felt great for me, but I misread the lower right. And after that, it seemed over.
It’s tough to do diagrams on my phone, so you’ll have to make due with the SGF for now. Anyway, my biggest problem this game was dying on the side - it was due to overplay.
I felt sad, but Benjamin and Eric were going to lunch, so I drove them to get chicken. We ate out, and I returned to play another game.
So I felt good going into this game. I was white:
It’s a partial game record because I was interrupted for lunch while recalling it. The main line isn’t what I played - I died on the right. Needless to say, I lost.
The opening felt great for me, but I misread the lower right. And after that, it seemed over.
It’s tough to do diagrams on my phone, so you’ll have to make due with the SGF for now. Anyway, my biggest problem this game was dying on the side - it was due to overplay.
I felt sad, but Benjamin and Eric were going to lunch, so I drove them to get chicken. We ate out, and I returned to play another game.
be immersed
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
The tournament is self paired, so I used the software to find another 2d to play. Finally, I found somebody, and we played a game. I was white:
I misread around move 80 or so and didn’t see the whole picture. At move 95, I felt a twinge if despair. But then I played as in 96. It felt wonderful. I won this game.
On one hand, I left that ahi of him moving out his stones for way too long. I feel bad that I didn’t read things out clearly. I didn’t have a full plan for F13, and that was risky and bad.
But on the other hand, the sequence at 95 felt beautiful. I loved that part.
I misread around move 80 or so and didn’t see the whole picture. At move 95, I felt a twinge if despair. But then I played as in 96. It felt wonderful. I won this game.
On one hand, I left that ahi of him moving out his stones for way too long. I feel bad that I didn’t read things out clearly. I didn’t have a full plan for F13, and that was risky and bad.
But on the other hand, the sequence at 95 felt beautiful. I loved that part.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
The setup for the third game was a little weird. Normally in a tournament, I don’t play the same guy twice. But since this one is self-paired, it can happen.
As it turns out, the 2d who beat me in the first game watched the tail end of my second game. And then he asked us both if either of us wanted to play. There weren’t other 2d available then, I guess.
So I played the same guy again, this time playing as black:
I omitted the last part, but basically, I killed the center and won the game.
It was weird playing the same guy again, but somehow satisfying to win against the guy who beat me.
As it turns out, the 2d who beat me in the first game watched the tail end of my second game. And then he asked us both if either of us wanted to play. There weren’t other 2d available then, I guess.
So I played the same guy again, this time playing as black:
I omitted the last part, but basically, I killed the center and won the game.
It was weird playing the same guy again, but somehow satisfying to win against the guy who beat me.
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Kirby
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Re: Kirby's Study Journal
Shortly after this, go trivia and puzzle activities began. I focused on trivia, and our team got several coin tokens. I watched some of the simultaneous games after this, but our team will do a simultaneous game tomorrow, not today.
After that, I went out to eat at a pizza place with folks. Then headed back to the hotel.
It was fun. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
After that, I went out to eat at a pizza place with folks. Then headed back to the hotel.
It was fun. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
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